Chinese researchers have reported initial results from an experimental surgical procedure they say aims to address Alzheimer’s disease through manipulating the brain’s waste clearance systems.

The findings, published in General Psychiatry, detail outcomes from what the team describes as a “cervical shunting” operation performed on a patient with Alzheimer who was able to achieve what the researchers describe as “promising” results.

Alzheimer’s disease progressively damages brain cells, primarily affecting memory and cognitive functions. The condition occurs when proteins called beta-amyloid and tau accumulate abnormally in the brain, forming plaques and tangles that disrupt normal brain function. Like a city’s waste management system, the brain has its own cleanup mechanism—the glymphatic system—which removes these harmful proteins during sleep.

“We speculated that decompression of the lymphatic trunk and cervical lymphatic—venous anastomosis (LVA) could facilitate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the cranial glymphatic system, potentially accelerating the clearance of harmful beta-amyloid and tau proteins,” the researchers hypothesized.

The study, conducted through a collaboration between Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, involved a patient who met the stringent biological diagnostic criteria set

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Author: Jose Antonio Lanz